


Drifting

by PompousPickle



Category: Almost Human
Genre: John is just that stubborn, M/M, Miscommunication, Pacific Rim AU, Telepathy doesn't manage to make anything better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 18:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1480378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pacific Rim AU. DRNs were designed to be as human as possible, to aide humans in the war against Kaiju. But they weren't Drift Compatible with everyone. They were replaced by MXs. Useless and obsolete. Until Dorian met John Kennex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting

Synthetics didn’t take anything with them into the Drift. That’s why most pilots preferred them. They could control one half of the Jaeger, completely in-tune with their co-pilot. But they had no memories, no thoughts, no feelings. When one drifts with a Synthetic, they are only drifting with their own thoughts. Nothing but the man and the machine, completely solitary and in-sync. Most people preferred it that way.

Not John Kennex.

“I noticed during our Drifting tests that you visited another Recollectionist last night,” the MX-43 informed John as they walked through the halls. John’s pace was quick, his expression furrowed and firmly ignoring his Synthetic co-pilot. “These doctors are not only highly illegal but also dangerous towards your mental stability and well-being. There are several pockets of your memory that are sealed from the coma, I understand. However, seeing a back-alley doctor to regain these memories could easily get you detained from piloting a Jaeger ever agai-“

The MX didn’t finish before John fed him to a turbine. It took the engineering team an entire day to clean out all of the parts.

\---

“I can’t have one of those _things_ in my head,” Kennex insisted as he sat in the Marshall’s Maldando office. She glared at him intently, studying every inch of his face. She had given him the second chance after the Kaiju “Syndicate” attacked in San Francisco, resulting in the loss of both his partner and his leg. She had let him come back despite everything telling her not to. Therefore, Ranger Kennex was her responsibility, and John knew it.

“Then what _do_ you want _,_ John?” She asked with a sigh. “You can’t have a human partner in there, and you don’t want a Synthetic partner. At this point you’re acting like you shouldn’t pilot at all.”

John didn’t want that either. He needed to fight. He had no life outside of piloting. But he couldn’t deal with a Synthetic anymore. It was like being alone in there. Alone with his thoughts, feeling every hole in his memory. He could see and feel every mistake and everything that he should have done. He could feel Pelham all over again, just before he was detached from the system entirely. He could see Anna, before she left, abandoning him forever. He could feel his leg as it was before, flesh and bone, blood running through it.

He could feel everything he lost coursing through him, whenever he drifted with an MX.

It was all he could do to not lose his own mind.

And he knew Maldonado could see that just by looking at him.

“I think I have a solution. Go see Rudy for your new Synthetic. And _please,_ if you’re going to kill this one, try not to damage the other equipment while you do it.”

\---

“The remarkable thing about DRNs,” Rudy started as soon as John was settled into the lab, “Is that they aren’t Drift Compatible with everyone. They were built with the Synthetic Soul program, meaning that they are as close to human as we could possibly make them. They process memories, thoughts and emotions much as you or I would. Or well…as I would.”

“Very funny Rudy. If I actually had feelings, they’d be hurt,” John grunted as he watched the man flit around the lab towards the Synthetic Holding Chambers. The man was far from what one would call an engineer. He studied Kaiju, for the most part. His life’s work was the biochemistry that broke them down and studying what made them tick. But he was the only one who could stand the MXs enough to keep them in his lab. So he did.

“Anyway,” Kennex continued. “What makes you and Maldonado so sure I can Drift with this fancy DRN of yours? Didn’t they decommission them because they weren’t as universal as the bags of bolts we use now?”

Rudy stumbled for a moment as he took the DRN down from the chamber and looked at John. “Well we don’t know. For certain, anyway. But what the Marshall wants…”

“The Marshall gets. Yeah I’m under that impression.” John finished as he examined the DRN. He was different than the MXs, that much was certain. And he was handsome, for what it was worth. But his eyes were still lifeless, his limbs still cold and inhuman, his posture still stiff.

That is, until John reached for the button to turn him on.

\---

The first compatibility test didn’t go well.

“Remember John,” Dorian said quietly. “We aren’t fighting. We are testing compatibility. It’s a dialogue.”

John ignored him entirely and went straight for the legs with the staff, knocking the Synthetic off his feet and onto the mats. “0-1. Call me Kennex, by the way. We aren’t friends,” John reminded him as Dorian bounced up, attacking him with the staff, rounding out the attack and catching John completely off his guard.

“1-1,” Dorian said calmly, but a small smirk was forming on his lips. The two continued to attack and defend, dancing around the mats with ease. “You know, it’s tradition to bow to your partner before beginning. It shows respect and manners. Something you could probably afford to gain.”

John wound his way around Dorian, under his arm and around his back, able to strike from behind with ease. “2-1. Attacking head-on cuts out the meaningless chatter. Something you could probably afford to do. Silence is golden.”

Dorian only shrugged and flipped the attack over, landing a potential blow on John’s chin. “2-2. I hope you are leaving yourself this open on purpose, man. Otherwise a Kaiju will rip clean through you.”

John grunted and attacked again, which only ended with him landing squarely on his back. He managed to recover with a quick roll, swiping his stick across Dorian’s ankles. And then the damn Synthetic bastard started _humming_. He was humming to himself and fighting, as though it were a simple chore like sweeping or doing laundry, as though he were _relaxed_ and having fun.

 But about ten minutes later, while John was down for the count on the floor and staring up at Dorian, holding the staff to his chin and a smug smile in his blue eyes, John realized that maybe he was having a little bit of fun too.

“That’s enough,” Sandra Maldonado said, clapping her hands once and moving onto the floor. Kennex had nearly forgotten she was there, as well as half of the staff of the Shatterdome. “Dorian will be your co-pilot, Kennex.”

John stiffened. He expected this. Of course he expected this, and felt it. They were Drift compatible. He knew it and he shouldn’t have been as annoyed by this as he was. “Really? Me and the Synthetic that was decommissioned for being _picky_? No offense Marshall but that’s probably a bad idea.”

“I hate that word,” Dorian said firmly, referring to “Synthetic”.

“Idea? Yeah I’m sure you would,” John said, avoiding making eye-contact with the android and continuing to look Maldonado square in the eyes. “You really think I can go out there and risk my life with _this_?” He said, motioning towards the DRN.

“I’m standing right here,” Dorian added again. John once again ignored him.

Finally, Maldonado spoke up, a small smile on her lips but her eyes were firm. “Yes. I really do. You and Dorian will suit up tomorrow morning for the first run-through with your Jaeger. 0800 sharp. _Don’t_ be late.”

\---

The first time they Drifted, John could feel it.

_It was late at night. Cold. The Russian military force had been completely depleted and no amount of fighter jets or tanks could take the Kaiju down._

John had never been stationed in Russia.

_She was so strong, unafraid, and hopeful even as the Kaiju ripped her from the systems and crushed her throat. She screamed out in pain, but her last thoughts had been praying that Dorian would be safe._

_I’m so sorry._

_I’m just an android. Just a Synthetic. I will always be safe. I can always be rebuilt and I can never die. But there will never be another you. And I couldn’t protect you like I wanted to._

_I’m sorry._

_I’m so so sorry._

The thoughts had only lasted a second. But John felt like he had sat inside of them for an eternity, soaking himself in the feeling. Dorian had lost a partner. He hadn’t been able to Drift after that. No one was compatible. No one was good enough to let inside his mechanical brain, to feel his mechanical heartbeat.

_Useless._

And all at once John came back online, his brain fully wired into the Jaeger. But he didn’t spare his new partner even a glance before engaging the systems and pulling the giant metal monster into gear. It was full capacity, as strong as he had ever felt it. Almost as close to how it was before the attack that took away his world as he knew it. He still felt like a man with missing parts, but at least he knew he wasn’t the only one.

It was only a test, but suddenly John Kennex felt like he could take on the entire world.

\---

“About what you saw today,” Dorian started as they got out of the Jaeger and moved down the halls. Workers were staring at them. The next Pilot Team. The new faces of the future. The next big heroes to break the news. John couldn’t be less excited even if he tried.

“Don’t worry about it man,” John said, realizing that the ‘man’ had slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. He patted the DRN on the back once, beginning to walk towards his room. He looked back at Dorian once, who seemed to be studying him, just as intently as he did when they were first fighting, as intently as he always seemed to. “We all have our own monsters,” John finally added, hoping that it would somehow clear the air.

“Thank you, Ranger Kennex.”

“Call me John.”

\---

Dorian grew to like waking John up at six in the morning for early-morning training routines.

“If it’s not a Kaiju attack on the city, I’m not interested,” John grumbled as he tried to roll over to go back to sleep. But before he could do anything, Dorian grabbed him and rolled him back over, attaching his synthetic leg to him.

John’s eyes shot open. “Privacy is really a foreign term to you, isn’t it?”

Dorian only blinked, before giving a small half-smile. “Just be glad I’m not an MX,” he said, watching carefully as John allowed the synthetic leg to calibrate and climbed out of bed.

“Believe me; I’m happy for that every day. Still wish you learned how to leave me alone though,” he said, stretching and grabbing a shirt to pull it on. And he didn’t know why he glanced at Dorian to see if he was watching him.

And he _definitely_ didn’t know why it pleased him to catch the DRN looking, eyes almost wide, before returning back to his calm expression. John snorted at the thought, blaming the fact that he just rolled out of bed.

It was only then he noticed the awkward stiffness between his legs. Dorian only huffed out a laugh as they both glanced down. “What were _you_ dreaming about? No. Never mind. I want it to be a surprise for when we Drift.”

“You’re just jealous because I have proper equipment and you don’t,” John retorted, figuring the DRN models were built in the same way that the MXs were.

As soon as Dorian reached for his fly, John regretted ever saying that.

\---

“The great John Kennex doing _yoga_?” Richard laughed from the doorway to the aerobics room, adjusting his shoulders and taking a sip from his coffee.

“You know, that coffee habit is going to give you a growth stunt,” John said dryly as he stretched into the downward dogposition and held there. “Or are we a little too late for that?”

“You know what I like about you John? Your sense of humor. And how easily tamed you are by getting a new partner. He has you doing yoga now?”

John thought about standing up straight and punching him. He really did. But he didn’t. The yoga seemed to be working. “Trying to clear my mind for the Jaeger. Drifting with a real being with real thoughts means you have to do that sometimes. Not that you’d know. By the way, how is Valerie?”

John counted it as a win when Richard just sneered and finished his coffee somewhere else.

\---

John knew that Dorian could feel the gaps in his memory. He thought about it sometimes when they were Drifting. He never outwardly acted concerned. But John could feel the codes for it. It was strange; John was no computer geek. Not even close. But he could read the lines of Dorian’s code as though they were any human’s thoughts.

“Stop going to the Recollectionist,” Dorian said to him one day. They had just killed a Category 3, codename Todesfall. A woman had tried to interview them immediately after. It hadn’t ended well, despite Maldonado insisting that their team could use better media coverage.

“If this is about what the reporter said, I don’t care,” John grunted, speeding up ahead of his partner. Dorian, however, didn’t let him go that easily. He grabbed onto John’s wrist, holding tightly, weighing himself to the ground. And sometimes it was easy to forget that Dorian wasn’t human. But when he was holding John down with probably only a portion of his strength, John couldn’t help but wonder what else he was capable of.

“It’s more what you said to the reporter,” Dorian said calmly. Too calmly. God John hated when his partner used that voice.

“She asked a question. I told her the truth.” John responded with a grunt. Considering what he _could_ have said, he thought he did pretty well. She wanted to know how Drifting with Dorian compared to Drifting with Pelham. He told her that he didn’t remember, but he was going to figure it out. It was pretty tame, all things considered.

“I understand John. You need those memories. You want something to hold onto. Something that anchors you down to the past and gives you motivation for the future. I _get_ that. I can _feel_ that.” John tried to yank his hand away again. He didn’t want to hear this. Not from Dorian. Not from anyone. “But those drugs he’s giving you, they affect the way you fight. They give you a 74.78% chance of causing you to chase the RABIT during a Drift. And if you do that during a battle…”

“Just let me go. I have this under control,” John muttered, sounding about as sure as he felt. Which is to say, not much at all.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Dorian said quietly, but firmly. He was unembarrassed by his own emotions. John had already known that. He always said exactly what he was thinking, what he was thinking. But he didn’t always know what to make of his emotions. So the DRN was subdued, calm and thinking in ways that John hardly was.

John finally pried his arms away and muttered, “Get used to being disappointed.”

Some days he would have rather partnered with an MX.

\---

John once shot an MX at point blank range, after he had accused Dorian of being a liability on the field. And that’s why Rangers are no longer allowed to carry firearms on their person anymore.

Dorian still gets a little smug about it sometimes. John just snarls if anyone brings it up.

\---

The first time John chased the RABIT was during a Category 2 attack along the Gulf. It should have been nothing. Child’s play, even, after taking down so many Category 3 Kaijus with Dorian. But he had been taking the pills. At least twice a day. They were opening up the pockets of memory that his brain left out in the coma. He could feel them.

_He could see her._

_She was beautiful, of course. She had a warm smile and bright eyes. She always had a comforting quality to her voice. Never frantic, always calm. They would lay in bed together for hours, all day sometimes. John was a cop, before the attacks started five years ago.  They would take advantage of their days off. They would lie in bed and never move._

_But that never explained why she left him. That never explained the moment he woke up in the hospital alone. No one checked in to see him. No one claimed responsibility for him. She was gone. And he never knew why._

“John.”

_It was supposed to be another team’s job. Someone else was supposed to take care of it. He told Anna to keep hidden. He told her that she would be safe. She told him she’d be waiting there when he returned._

_She lied._

_And then when he suited up and tried to stop it himself…_

“John we have to go. People are going to die.”

_People were already dead._

_Anna was gone. Pelham was gone. It was supposed to be easy. The fight should have been so easy. Half of the city was destroyed. Half of his old Jaeger was destroyed._

“John _listen to me_.” Finally John could hear the voice that had been calling out to him. It was fuzzy, but somehow familiar.

“Anna,” John croaked out. No. The voice was too deep to be hers. But still as warm, and just as calm.

“This is just a memory. Just follow my voice. I’m right here for you. Come out of the Drift. We’ll avenge them together. We can fight them together.”

When John finally stopped chasing the RABIT, he barely even looked at Dorian, let alone thanked him for pulling him out.

But he never took those pills again.

\---

“You like this,” Dorian said to him, quietly and with a small smile on his lips. They were waiting on Scrap Heap to finish calibrating so they could roll out. They were already Drifting, and John could see the code that Dorian was processing as they spoke. It was different than feeling his exact thoughts, but John could gather the basics from it. John’s own mind took it and translated into common speech.

 “Killing Kaiju? Well, I force myself to deal with you just so I can kill the suckers. So I guess I’d have to like it.” John stared out of the helm and watched the walls of the dome slowly reveal themselves, almost ready for the drop.

“You know what I meant. Drifting. Being inside of my head,” Dorian clarified, but his little smile never went away.

_You like me. Just say you like me._

John shook off the thought. But he couldn’t hide from the Drift. It was obvious. He knew he couldn’t hide from it forever, that he liked Dorian as his partner, that he wouldn’t want anyone else. But he tried not to let himself think it.

“What can I say?” John finally sniffed out, trying to sound casual as Scrap Heap finally finished the calibration routines. “It’s nice to share a head with someone just as messed up as me.”

And that’s when John found the slice of code that changed everything.

\---

“Mister Kennex!” Rudy exclaimed loudly as he tossed what he was holding, some portion of Kaiju intestine, to the side. “What…what brings you here? Are you reconsidering my offer from the other night because I do know this amazing club where the three of us can find beautiful women who would be willing to overlook…well a lot of things, for a chance with two famous Jaeger pilots and…”

“Dorian is writing his own code,” John said, pretending he hadn’t heard the first part. Ever since Dorian moved in with Rudy, it was all he could talk about, them going out and partying. But he couldn’t just move Dorian _out_. He needed him close-by for Kaiju attacks. And he had his own issues with bunking with the DRN. “I can read it when we’re Drifting.”

“Ah yes. You are probably linking into his Synthetic Soul programming,” Rudy said, nonchalantly. “Nothing to worry about, really,” he swung over to his computer and punched in a few numbers, placing a piece of Kaiju organ on a scale. “The Synthetic Soul allows Dorian to process and break down information, and program new emotional coding and protocols based on it.”

“And imperatives? Are those normal too? Such as a desire to protect or potentially kill for a certain person?” John said, trying to hide the fact that his voice was cracking and his heart was pounding, just a little.

Rudy looked up for a moment, blinking with his wide eyes. “I…suppose it’s a possibility yes. Perhaps if the DRN falls in love, it should be natural for him to put others beyond all else.” Rudy paused. “Are you worried he won’t put the mission first? Because I swear, if this about Kitty, I didn’t mean for him to get so attached to her. In fact when I hired her, I intended…”

“You’re fine,” John said quietly, too quietly. “Thanks Rudy. We’ll uh…we’ll talk later, alright?”

John ignored Rudy’s sputtering and excited response as he walked briskly from the lab. 

\---

Dorian had to have seen by now. He had to have known that John knew. There was no way John could hide it from the Drift. It was all he could think about. He steeled himself, trying to take only what he needed into the Jaeger. But he knew Dorian could find it, calculate what he needed and break down the data he wanted. And John tried not to feel violated, tried to tell himself that he had violated Dorian too. Tried to focus on the monster. Focus. Let the feelings wash over you, but don’t latch on.

He barely made it through that Drift alive.

“Category 3. Codename Strawman. One of the biggest yet John,” Dorian said firmly. He was unreadable, even if John was Drifting with him. He could only pick up bits of his code. He was sealing himself up, compartmentalizing every piece of data he had. “Jaeger Team Shining Chrome will be joining us. I believe you’ve met them. Valerie Stahl and her MX-43.”

John nodded and pushed the communication button. “Valerie,” he said warmly, “It’s a pleasure to be rolling out with you.” He pressed another button. “Team Scrap Heap is ready for the drop,” he told the team back in the Dome.

“Heard Scrap Heap. Shining Chrome?”

“We’re ready,” Valerie’s voice crackled through the system. “It’s good hearing from you again, John. You did well on that interview the other day. I hear you and Dorian are getting a new sponsorship deal.”

John grunted and scrambled to think of something clever. He wasn’t in it for the fame. Everyone knew that. But he didn’t want to look like some hardened veteran either. Dorian snorted to the left of him as he quickly tried to think of a laidback answer. “Yeah. Well, it’s not too much trouble to drink a soda after killing a Kaiju. So I figured why not? Dorian here will just have to drink a can of oil instead.”

“Very funny. You should quit this life of danger and become a comedian,” Dorian said dryly. The drop began with a loud hum, “Beginning the drop cycle,” Dorian informed his partner, seamlessly going from the sarcastic DRN to the Jaeger’s built-in AI. One of the benefits of using a Synthetic pilot meant not needing a separate AI system for the machine.

The fight wasn’t perfect. But communication between the four pilots was clear and precise and only three or four buildings were totaled. So all things considered, a successful day. John disconnected and opened up a can of FizPop, just in time for the cameras to swarm him and start asking the two of them questions.

Kennex tried to use the crowd to get away from Dorian, and maybe make his way closer to Stahl, to ask what she was doing after this, to see if maybe she wanted to get drinks.

But in the end, when the crowds died down and he was lying in his bed, he knew that the only that would be on his mind was the snarky android walking by his side. And he couldn’t rid himself of that fact.

\---

“You like Stahl,” Dorian said smugly as they went back through the Dome’s halls and towards their respective rooms. “You’re thoughts completely shift when you’re around her. Not to mention your pulse readings change. She excites you. Interests you.”

“Lots of things interest me,” John deflects. He _does_ like Stahl. But he barely knew her. He knew she liked to fight, that she was on the first and only Chrome pilots. He knew she had a history piloting with Richard Paul. The rest was a mystery. She was smart, strong, and had a nice smile. He knew others that fit that bill. Others that thought about him, put him in a special spot in their mind and would do anything to make sure he was happy.

He just couldn’t give Dorian the satisfaction.

“Soccer, noodles, hard liquor. Lots of things.” John said quickly, before thinking for a moment. “Speaking of noodles…”

“Really? You want me to sit around and watch you eat?” Dorian raised an eyebrow. “That didn’t end well for you last time. Smart Jaeger pilots learn from their mistakes.”

“You don’t have to come,” John said. But he knew Dorian would follow anyway. And hey, he didn’t really even mind it.

\---

“I was made to feel,” Dorian once told an interviewer, during a late-night slot on a show. John groaned and rolled his head back over the couch. Dorian barely reacted before turning back to the man giving the interview. “You’ll have to forgive him. Apparently his manners and emotions were taken when he lost his leg.”

The audience laughed. John only turned up a lip. The last thing he needed were people asking about his leg. And Dorian knew that. But he also knew that John could turn the conversation around, and bring up Dorian’s old partner at any given time. They both glanced at each other and Dorian seemed to whisper an apology without saying anything at all. And for a second, it was like John didn’t even need the Drift.

And that terrified him.

\---

Two Kaiju attacks later and Dorian’s affection imperatives were gone.   

Dorian was a blank page. He carried nothing into the Drift but memories. No emotions. No stress. No codes that had “John” written all over them. John wasn’t there at all. Just under “trust” and “co-pilot” and a few scattered memories.

John didn’t know how to feel. So he chose not to.

And Dorian didn’t explain, didn’t say anything. He just informed John that Scrap Heap was near calibration and ready to make landfall soon. And John didn’t want to acknowledge how empty that made him feel.

\---

Their Jaeger hadn’t always been called Scrap Heap. But John one day called it just that under his breath. The engineers and designers weren’t fond of it. But then again, few people were fond of John so he ignored it. And somewhere down the line, the name stuck. Dorian said he liked it, that it suited them. He’d often make jokes about it, with John sometimes, as they climbed into the docking station together.

But now Dorian just stared at it with empty eyes and climbed up the stairs to the loading dock, without saying a word to John at all.

\---

“What the _hell_ did you do to him?” John said when he entered Rudy’s lab. He nearly threw himself against the scientist. John knew he had to have something to do with it. He had tampered with Dorian in his sleep before, woken him up without permission, taken away select memories about illicit Mail Order Bride incidents. He had to have done something. Had to have _known_ something.

“I…” Rudy cleared his throat, glancing at Dorian standing in his charge port. “I am not entirely sure…”

A tube of preserved organs spilled to the floor as John grabbed for Rudy’s lapels. Glass shattered and the lab began to reek of formaldehyde. More so than usual, anyway.

John didn’t even have to say anything before Rudy began to talk. “Right. Of course. I…he wanted me to do it. He wanted me to delete most of his reformatted coding, the things that made him feel specific emotions for…well, for you. Please just put me down.”

He let go of the scientist and took a slow breath. “I’m not stupid. You made a backup, right?” He said, trying to remain calm and not scare the man. He was like a fragile deer, or something. He didn’t want the guy to faint. He had seen him try out to be a pilot once. It wasn’t pretty.

“Yes of course but…” Rudy started, but John wasn’t interested.

“I can’t fight Kaiju with an MX-clone. And I don’t have the patience to start over,” John finished, trying to make it clear that it wasn’t what Rudy thought it was. That it wasn’t love. And that he didn’t want Dorian to remember his feelings for him, that he wanted to feel loved again. “He was just beginning to no longer be a pain in my ass and then you had to ruin it.”

“A pain in your ass?” Rudy raised an eyebrow.

“Rudy,” John warned, low and guttural.

“Right of course.” Rudy turned to the computer and began to scramble to pull up the data that he had deleted from Dorian’s code.

\---

Dorian came back online slowly as the data poured into him. He could see warmth and recognition filling the DRN as he came back.

“Thought you might like me better this way,” Dorian said softly and matter-of-factly, but somehow his voice was hopeful.

“You said it yourself once, didn’t you? You were made to feel.” John added. He wasn’t exactly touch-starved, nor did he crave human contact. But he still moved his hand to touch Dorian’s cheek, studying him as did so. “That’s right. I actually listen to you when you ramble sometimes. Try not to faint.”

“I don’t know John. That really _is_ shocking news,” Dorian replied, his lips forming into a smile.

“Not the most shocking news you’ll receive today.” John was sure about this, even if Dorian had already guessed it. The thing about the Drift is that a lot of things didn’t need to be said. That a lot of things went without saying. But sometimes it helped to get a verbal confirmation. To know that you were appreciated, that you were loved, outwardly and not just in the confines of one’s thoughts or one’s code. And with that, John’s grip around Dorian’s face tightened and he moved in to kiss the DRN, chaste but firm. His lips only moved when Dorian’s began to.

“Ahem,” Rudy cleared his throat awkwardly. He hadn’t forgotten the scientist was there, but it somehow seemed less important than it normally would have. “I certainly…I mean I don’t object to the current conversation going on here. But I am standing right here and I should…probably get back to…you know, math and science and _Kaiju_ things. You know, work.”

“Right,” Dorian said quickly. He turned to John. “We’ll finish this conversation later. I’ll catch you in the Drift.”

He’d never admit it out loud, but John was looking forward to it.


End file.
